Password/Trivia

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• Blooper:
  • Tom Kennedy on Plus managed to blurt out the answer to the Password Puzzle a couple times, resulting in a round that had to be thrown out but still aired.
  • Bert Convy was even worse at blurting out the password or puzzle answer on Super.
  • Super's set was almost ridiculously prone to breakdowns, few of which were edited out of the broadcast: the door behind Convy's podium sticking, the whole puzzle board accidentally being revealed, etc. Such bloopers would often send Convy and the celebs into long fits of laughter.
• Fan Nickname: "Mr. Password" for Allen Ludden, as this was (in)arguably his best-known series.
  • The ABC version was sometimes known during the mid-1990s to early 2000s as "Password II", mainly to distinguish it from its 1960s predecessor.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Most of CBS (daytime) was destroyed, with the last season put into syndication. ABC is even worse off, with only four episodes circulating and not many others held by archivists (plus the 1972 episode of The Odd Couple, which occasionally shows up on TV Land).
• Missing Episode:
  • An episode of Plus where George Peppard ranted about NBC's standards and practices (which he thought were like a "police mentality") never aired during the show's original run. GSN has occasionally aired it, however.
  • February 1981: An entire round was mistakenly erased due to a camera error. The show dubbed in a clip of Tom summarizing the round while celebrity partners Wink Martindale and Gene Rayburn ribbed him.
  • At one point, Charles Nelson Reilly was supposed to appear as a celebrity guest, but that particular week had Bill Cullen in his place...despite Cullen having appeared on the show only a few weeks before.
• Real Life Relative: On the original — Lucille Ball & Garry Morton (and in one instance joined by Lucy's kids), Jimmy & Gloria Stewart, Steve & Carol Lawrence, Jayne Meadows & Steve Allen, Jack & Joan Benny; On Plus John and Patty Duke Astin. And, of course ... Betty White & Allen Ludden.
  • On Super, Mary Ann Mobley & Garry Collins.
• Screwed by the Network: Every single version.
  • CBS' downfall can be traced back to the morning of July 11, 1966, when it was preempted in favor of a press conference by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara regarding the progress of the Vietnam War; viewers began defecting to both NBC's recently-debuted Days of Our Lives and the debut of The Newlywed Game on ABC. Further problems arose when network head Fred Silverman wanted the show permanently moved to Television City and Mark Goodson refused.
  • ABC went into a massive gimmickfest on July 15, 1974, then changed to All-Stars on November 18 and drove even more viewers away. Unlike many other games which went to an all-celebrity format, ABC changed on February 24, 1975 to a big-money civilian-based format...but at that point, despite getting another 18 weeks, it was too late.
  • Plus and Super were both slotted at Noon, often getting screwed over due to local news.
  • Million-Dollar, while usually winning its timeslot, earned the ire of CBS for happening to draw the "wrong" demographic.
• Throw It In:
  • Tom Kennedy on Plus managed to blurt out the answer to the Password Puzzle a couple times, resulting in a round that had to be thrown out but still aired.
  • Bert Convy was even worse at blurting out the password or puzzle answer on Super.
  • Super's set was almost ridiculously prone to breakdowns, few of which were edited out of the broadcast — the door behind Convy's podium sticking, the whole puzzle board accidentally being revealed, etc. Such bloopers would often send Convy and the celebs into long fits of laughter.